India's Potential In The 21st Century

Truly, the 21st century has the potential to be India’s century. Most of this can be attributed to the digital disruption that seems to have changed the way we think and function. People across strata have embraced the power of digital and used their ingenuity and passion to pivot their small businesses and ideas to successful ventures. And it will be these who we be the prime movers of the 21st century.

Covid has seem to be another disrupting force, that made 3 quarters of the globe shut down. However, it has also been a great time for companies to stop and reset themselves, especially in the Indian context. “The great opportunity that India has now is to establish itself as a key component of the global supply chain,” believes Indra Nooyi, Former Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo. “India has navigated well through the pandemic but it now needs to think its place in the global supply chain. India must control its destiny on critical items (drugs, medicines, PPE kits, etc.), else it could be left holding at the negative end of the supply chain.”

Talking further on the opportunities that lie for the country, Nooyi shares that India has a great potential to scale its manufacturing. Because if one has scale, he has the advantage of low-cost as well. “India holds a bright future with respect to export of goods. It could well be a center for PPE, medicines, etc. for the globe,” she adds.

India being a major importer of ventilators, PPE kits, innovation in testing kits, etc, reforms across industries have eased the business operations. Also, government's efforts have ensured competitiveness and digitasation across various areas. “These reforms are to bring ease of execution, predictability & to facilitate and enable the private sector,” asserts Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog, Government of India.

“India used to get into sunset areas of growth. Size and scale of manufacturing in those areas was difficult. The govt. introduced a production-linked incentive scheme in areas where global trade has grown significantly. 75% of Indian exports are in the areas where the global trade shrunk down to 30%. We looked at the new areas- automobiles, electronics, tech products, battery manufacturing, etc.,” he points.

Suggesting the top five focus areas that India must be conscious of, to augment its growth, Nooyi describes, “Skilled labour (their education & re-skilling), commitment to product quality, robustness of supply chain (road, rail, land), ease of doing business & holistic integrity (no corruption, protection of IP, consistency of policy, etc.), must be on top of the mind.”

Making India Digitally Rich 

“India used Covid to push its major structural reforms. Digitisation has been transforming for the country in that sense. Second, for people under BPL, we now do everything through direct benefit transfer. This has led to no leakages in the govt. account. Third, the unified payment interface infrastructure is just 4 years old. Yet, has executed more than double the number of transaction of AmEx globally.

As a consequence, India has become digitally rich in terms of data. It is eventually moving towards being data intelligent now,” mentions Kant.

Agreeing to the above, Nooyi believes that India has so much to be proud of. “Aadhaar card implementation is the largest implementation of its kind done at the shortest time. Now, the next phase is moving from softwares to building on-ground. This means utilising physical infrastructure in the country to the maximum. India must now think on how to expand that pipeline.”

Indeed, now is the time for India to use technology to leapfrog and benefit from the experiences around the world. On this, Nooyi states, “India is witnessing the wave of urbanisation. 500mn Indians are to move to urban cities over next 5 decades. The challenge is how to make sustainable & compact cities on the back of public transport, how to recycle waste, how to learn from examples from other countries and much more.

India does well in taking the best developed market ideas, the best technology & then tailoring it for its own environment. India has done that consistently over time. Brands will have to scout ideas all over, to explain that India is an innovative engine & open to business & investment. It is a circle that will eventually help us.”

All we aspire for is India to be viewed as a reliable, high-quality, low-cost, outstanding supplier for itself and the world. The future of India is bright if we marry quality and cost with education, believe experts.

This session was held at the Amazon Smbhav Summit 2021.